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Thursday, January 28, 2010

It has been a while since I updated last, I apologize. I've been trying not to pull my hair out between school and the new codex. I know my past posts may have seemed a bit doom and gloom about the new book, but I've grown to like it a bit. Most of my opinions still stand, but what works, works really well. Though as many on the Tyranid Hive board can attest to, the rules seem very rushed and poorly phrased.
But moving on, the main problem is that everything has changed, not for the worse, but just different in almost every way. As someone wise on the forums said,
"This isn't a new codex, it's a new army, and you just happen to have the models for it." - MacabreDerek

Friday, January 15, 2010

While I do not own my own copy of the new Codex, I have read it, and confirmed it to the summary/rumor/leaked sheet I have. So in general I know what I’m talking about, some wordings I am going on memory (though I looked specifically for wording when I was reading the codex).

My previous post was about the overall feel of the Codex, and my concerns and gripes with it. I'd recommend reading it first. This one is a long summary of each unit, may need to just skim this one over. My next one should be in a day or two, and it will be about tactical analysis of certain units. Most likely the only ones I see viable, and maybe a battle report of my first game if I can get one on Saturday.

For now I’m going to give a general overview, moving through the army list. Those of you soon to face Tyranids will enjoy the insight. Be warned this may consist of some ranting/venting, but I’ll try and edit that out if I can. I’ll start with HQ and see how far that takes us. (Edit, it took me all the way, This may be long, you can skim and read the parts you are interested in. I made a few bold points you might want to read.)

Hive tyrantNot a whole lot has changed at first glance. An increase in weapon skill and an extra attack now makes him the close combat specialist he was meant to be. He comes with close combat weapons, and swapping for ranged weapons costs points, so not likely going to happen much. The base cost now is about equal to a fully upgraded 4ed tyrant, but now you get two psychic powers of your choice included. And that’s why it’s useless.

Allow me to explain; these psychic powers are shooting powers, so if you shoot, you are not running, if you are not running, you are not getting your combat monster closer to the enemy. In addition, you can’t shoot while in close combat, so these two powers you are gaining, you get to use maybe once per game, oh not to mention you have to choose which one to use since you can only use one a turn. They are some nice powers, the two best ones are either make a unit within 18” have Ws and Bs of 1 until the next turn, or do D3 S3 Ap2 hits, and gain that many wounds, up to normal.The useful options, like a preferred enemy aura, or granting outflank and +1 to reserves, are extra costing options. The other options, which fill the void of “biomorphs”, are decent and ok priced. Wings now cost one and a half times’ more than fourth edition, and competes with the 2+ armor save slot.

I’m going to interject here with my thought, Toxin sacs. They now grant 4+ poisons in close combat. For most units that are well worth it and you get to reroll sometimes. For anything strength 6 or higher, they are useless and shouldn’t even be listed. A 4+ with rerolls is still worse that the 2+ to wound normal for str6. If they gave it so anything S6 or higher instead had 3+ poison, now that would work.In short, I’m now paying somewhere around 300 points for a flying tyrant, to the 180 from fourth edition. With no 2+ armor save, or even the 6++, and very little kill-potential increase. I love my flying tyrant and will probably still field him, but I’ll be a bit more conservative on the battle field and with upgrading him.

Tyrant guard.Now I’ll be honest, I’ve always liked these guys, but never fielded them. I will now, and I’ll admit half the reason I’ll keep playing my Tyrant is to have them. Let me explain because I’m about to make an important statement. TYRANT GUARD IS THE NEW CARNIFEX. They have better stats in almost all ways to a carnifex, less strength and wounds, for half the price. They can now take a bonesword, aka force weapon. Carnifex is a S9 monstrous creature, so ignores armor and Instant deaths T4. A tyrant guard has S5, ignore armor, and makes enemies take a morale test or Instant dies. So for practically the same price, you get one unupgraded fex, or two tyrant guard. That’s four wounds on both sides; guards have higher weapon skill and initiative, double the attacks, and can take cover saves. Oh, and they are now like space marine command squads. You can buy them when you take a tyrant, but they can operate without him. Yes!

Tyranid Prime/Alpha warriorThis is a warrior with plus one to all stats (ignoring wounds/ LD). And he is an Independent character. Pretty much replacing the Broodlord in the HQ slot, but doesn’t require a retinue. He has the standard Warrior weapon options, talons, rending claws, bonesword/lash whip, devourer, Deathspitter. Also has Adrenal and toxic options, along with regenerate. Regenerate for its price is pretty much a must, while adrenal or toxin is an either or, poison rerolls, or +S first turn, never take both.

The real beauty of this guy is the IC abilities, along with the Warrior alpha part. If he joins a unit of warriors, he increases their Ws and Bs to his. The Ballistic skill increase is far more changing than the weapon skill one, but both are appreciated. But joining other units is going to be his golden niche. He can join a Carnifex to give him cover, or join a Zoanthrope unit to soak up instant death shots. Those are the two best uses I’ve seen so far. His toughness 5 and three wounds means he is in a unit to soak up the random S8 shot. And that is also why regenerate is so important.

TervigonA monstrous creature, six wounds, and produces gaunts. While is listed as an HQ, it can be taken as a troop option, so I don’t expect to see it used as an HQ. I’ll cover it when I get to troops.

Unique creatures.Swarm LordA super tyrant! Has four swords and kills everything in close combat. Higher weapon skill means Ws4 hits on 5+, and has one more wound. His attacks cause instant death, no ifs ands or buts, and successful invulnerable saves have to be rerolled. He is a walking Peril of the warp, and that is the problem, he is walking. He costs about as much the fully functioning flying tyrant from above, but is just as fragile, not as mobile; so much take tyrant guard as an escort further pushing up his point cost. Good news is he has a 4++ save, bad news it’s only in close combat. But at least it is all fair, I mean it is not like there is a Space marine special character who only costs two thirds as much, has a 2+/3++ save, eternal warrior, and is an independent character and so can join units…. I’m sorry, who is this Lysander?

Mortex parasite.Uhm….He’s a flying lictor like IC, causes dead models to become ripper swarms, which still can’t score, so he is useless. I’m thinking of making one just for the fun conversion ideas, though I don’t like the picture in the codex for him.

Elites-Now this is going to get tricky, I’m going to try and condense it down as much as I can.

Hive guardSeems a lot of people are worked up and excited for them. I don’t think I’ll ever use them. Think a devastator squad with only krak missiles, doesn’t need LOS, but only half the range. Ok, they are decent, but there are better options for the elite slot.

LictorsFinally don’t have to trip when they come into play, and finally have a third wound again and are survivable. Oh and they got a point reduction… you get what you pay for. They deploy like the infamous Marbo guardsman, but lost their ability to assault the turn they came in. flesh hooks are now mini assault cannons, and they gained fleet and the stealth rule, so only +1, not +2 to cover, which was powerful in fifth edition rules anyway.The biggest change/problem is the change of pheromone trail special rule. It used to be a reroll of a reserves roll, be that a fail or success. Now it is a teleport homing beacon and +1 to reserves. But both of those only apply if the lictor is on the table already. So they would not matter till turn 3 at the earliest. I had bought three Lictors off eBay expecting them to become better. Well they are more pieces for conversions now.

Death leaperA special (unique) Lictor who pretty much has the exact same stuff, but more special rules, and Ws9, which rocks. He has 5+ rending, a special night fight rule, makes enemy models near him roll less on difficult terrain, and also causes –D3 to an enemy LD for the game as long as he is alive (and that’s is before the game starts, not when he comes on the table). Now that is a lot of stuff for one guy, but he costs about that much too, and by that I mean about a fex worth. The common idea right now is to use him as an anti-psyker with his –LD ability.

VenomthropeZoanthrope like stats (I don’t even know why they have a Bs though), the first new model shown, and most rumors were true, but he was over hyped. Yes, grants any unit within 6” a 5+ cover save, defensive grenades and assaulting those unites count as going through difficult terrain. And he also has lash whips and a 2+ poison. You can also have a brood of 1-3. Two cons; long armed metal model, and competes with other elite slots. He will be good if nidzilla survives, giving all fexen cover saves, but that’s really it.

PyrovoresAn amazing model, they are what the Biovores should look like. Carnifex sized base and they are supposed to be close combat creatures. They have horrible stats, 1 power weapon attack, and a S6 flamer. They are never going to be used, though people may buy them for their looks.

Ymgarl StealersOn the forums I believe they are now called Yealers. They are normal stealers with a 4+ save and special deployment and stat mutation. They may count a piece of terrain as the board edge when they come from reserves, is essentially the easiest way to describe it. But the terrain piece has to be chosen at the beginning of the game. They may also each turn choose +T, +S, or +A, and cannot use the same one twice in a row. Similar to wood elf dancers from Fantasy.

ZoanthropeSales will skyrocket of these guys. They got their much needed Bs increase, and now operate as a brood, both things I am happy about. Mixed feelings on their save but it went from 2+/6++, to 5+/3++. And they can be instant killed. I’m going to go ahead and say this for all Non-Tyranid players, KILL THE ZOANTRHOPE FIRST! The most important thing you could ever do. They are now our ONLY anti-tank unit in the game. (Only reliable/effective).

Doom of Malan’TaiThe special character Zoanthrope which is nicknamed Doom or DoM. This has got to be one of the greatest units ever made. If he was T5 he would be the best, but he’s T4 and so he can still be instant killed easily. He is a Zoanthrope stats, with his strength equal to his wounds. This is how he works; each shooting phase (player’s and enemy’s), any enemy unit within 6” has to take a moral/leadership test on 3D6, each unit then suffers that many wounds equal the how much they failed the test by, with no armor saves allowed. He gains wounds equal to the number he causes.

He also has a psychic shooting attack which is amazing. It’s a 24” AP1 large blast. Its strength is equal to DoM’s strength, which is equal to his wounds. Even a partial on a vehicle is going to be amazing with that ability if he has 10 wounds. Although he does have to expend D3 wounds when he uses that attack, but you almost don’t have to use it, since the passive soul sucking ability is really good by itself. The idea is to have him in a Spore Pod and have him arrive next to a large mass of enemy units. But then you gamble him in reserves for a few turns, and also it sucks seeing a 10 wound model being instant killed.

TroopsHormagauntsWell they have move through cover and fleet still, and that’s about it. Even if they almost halved in points, they replaced their 12” assault with running 3D6 and choosing the highest. If you give them 4+ poison and furious charge, then they are back to fourth edition cost, but without the 12” assault they are not going to survive rapid fire range. The weapon skill drop is not that big of a deal because of the imitative boost, hitting first will negate the fact they will get hit more. I’ll give them a try a few times still, but they are still the glass hammer they once were.

GauntsI’ll be completely honest, they’ve been one of my least favorite units game wise. For now I’ll say I’m upset because of the weapons. I have no “termagant” models. None of my gaunts have fleshborers; the only use gaunts served was to physically be there, either for objectives or cover, so I gave them the cheapest guns and had them on their way.Well now my brood of sixteen spine gaunts is no longer the cheapest option. Why is the twin-linked S3 gun more than the S4 gun? Oh but the spinefist shoots equal to the number of attacks the model has! For any other model then that makes sense, but on a gaunt that doesn’t matter. Grr at GW for ruining my gaunts. Guess I’ll just pay the extra points for them. Oh, did I mention the minimum brood size increased, so I only have one brood instead of two now? Good news, with devourers having set stats, gaunts with devourers now are amazing, even if it doubles their points. S4 assault 3 at an increased range, heck yes!

TervigonFor each brood of gaunts you take you can take one Tervigon as a troop option. For the same price as a basic fex, you decrease strength, increase wounds, add synapse and objective holding, the ability to create gaunts, and have psychic powers… yes please. I was reluctant to jump on the band wagon for this one. But I see no reason to not have at least one of these, and I personally believe everyone is going to convert their fexen into Tervigons soon enough. For the same points you get a 6 wound scoring fex, there is no reason not to. Plus there are other little things like biomorph aura, gaunts near him count as having his biomorphs. And he has a psychic power that gives a unit within 18” Feel no pain.

GenestealersThey have infiltrate, fleet, and move through cover, stuck at a 5+ armor save, and dropped by two points. They have the toxin and adrenal options, putting them about the price as the current ones, with scuttle. You may upgrade one stealer to a brood lord per squad. This gives you a model with increased stats and some decent psychic powers. Nothing amazing and I’m not sure if he is worth his point increase from a normal stealer. I’ll want to take a unit or two of these, but they will be competing with my …

WarriorsThey have an increase in Ws, Bs, W, A, and Sv, all for a slight price after accounting for the weapons. I think they will make a great back board objective holder, and/or a great objective assaulter, as long as the alpha warrior is with them. You did take one right?

The biggest hit to warriors is the nerfing of the Deathspitter. The drop from S6 to S5 is hurtful but understandable; the change from small blast to assault 3 can be dealt with. What is unforgivable is the range decreasing from 24” to 18”. And they dare charge a point cost to change from devourers to Deathspitters. I’ll pay the point cost, but I’m not going to be happy about it.

Spore PodsProbably one of my most hated things in the codex. Read the previous blog post to understand why.

Fast attackFlying warriors AKA shrikes (did they mean shrieks, because that sounds cooler?)Pretty much normally warriors with wings, with wings costing one third of the fourth edition cost. Looking at them, essentially free, it is crazy and I might take them up on that.

RavenersThey got one more wound, and one more attack base. Pretty much exactly the same, same point cost, same stats, same weapon costs. They got new plastic models, and nothing else. The only reason they will be taken, the same reason I might take them, is they are now the only unit in our codex that has 12” assault as they are still beasts.

Flying rippersThey are rippers that are flying. Oh ya, there are rippers under troops, I forgot. Same cost, same stats, one more attack that doesn’t matter. Spinefist rippers still work, and still suck as normal, but sometimes effective.

GargoylesHalf the cost as they used to be, they have new plastic models that look amazing, and instead of bio-plasma they have some semi-rending-ish rule. Toxin and adrenal options, costs less than Hormagaunts upgrades. They should be taken over Hormagaunts whenever possible. So glad I converted 16 gaunts into gargoyles before the cool plastic ones came out. And bought 16 old edition ones on eBay.

HarpyThe Valkyrie wannabe? A flying monstrous creature with horrible stats shoots barbed stranglers and spore mines and other blast like weapons. Costs the same as a fex. It sucks, don’t ever take one. A heavy bolter equals a dead harpy.Spore minesFun little things, spend a few extra points on them if you can, and mess up your enemy’s deployment.

Heavy supportCarnifexIt pretty much costs double the base cost of fourth edition. But now you have weapons included, yes, but for outrageous prices and worse stats. If you want any guns on him that is going to cost you extra. A fourth edition 114 point devil-fex now costs 190ish points. Granted now the devourer is slightly better, but I would not say 75 points better. Pretty much never take a fex unless you really want bio-plasma, and by bio-plasma I mean short barreled plasma cannon. If it had the Gets Hot rule I’d have to call Tyranids vanilla flavored. You are better off taking the knife to your fexen and turning them into Tervigons or other things that cost the same points and way out perform the carnifex.

Old one eyeAdd another hundred points for no reason to the normal carnifex and then give him 5+regen and like D3 extra attacks. Another thing that will never be taken for any reason.

BiovoresPretty much the same as now, new spore mine rules, oh and they fire as assault weapons, so move them away if the enemy gets close, and still shoot. Can’t really take out vehicles anymore, so mostly anti-infantry, which most Nids do well. Not a high priority unit to take, but not a horrible choice for their points.

TrygonWhat everyone is waiting for or feared would come. Sadly it is true, they are replacing the carnifex. Dollar wise they cost the same as carnifex. Point wise they cost as much as a fex with guns. Ws5, six wounds and seven attacks on the charge, he is a close combat beast. His talons allow him to reroll his attacks, and he even has fleet. Again toxin is a horrible option, adrenal is good if you want to attack before marines, and regenerate is a must for any monstrous creature, especially when you have six wounds.

MawlocPretty much the same cost as a carnifex, stats are ok, Ws3, and only three attacks, but same wounds as a trygon. Not as deadly as the trygon, but about as deadly as the carnifex, and has a special attack. When he enters play, deepstrike him, if he hits enemy units, place a large blast where he would be, S6 AP2, any unit that survives is pushed to the edge of the blast, then place the Mawloc. If he is not in combat at the next Tyranid movement phase, he can burrow again and pop up next turn. And he has hit and run. Same biomorph options as the trygon.

TyrannofexWhile the hellhound like attack is cool, and the normal flamer that is 2+ poison sounds nice, and the two shot S10 48” shots, and the 20 shot fleshborer, and other assortment of guns he has is great, along with the fact that he can fire like three of them a turn. It does not justify him costing as much as a land raider, with his Bs of 3. Six wounds and a 2+ armor, there isn’t much more to him than that. It’s like a predator tank with all lascannons, you can do it, it works fine, but it’s not always the best choice for the points.

With the release of the new Tyranid Codex, which I’m sure everyone is now aware of, it seems that the only codex I have ever used has finally gone the way of the dinosaurs and prehistoric giant bugs…

I've glanced through the store's codex, and have done some mini play testing. I'm going to give a brief overview of the changes and my concerns.

Most people look forward to the release of their codex, and are happy to have it. From what I've gathered on the Tyranid community, it seems this codex has upset many of the older players, I'll include myself into this. Normally its update a few rules, tweak something here and there, add a few cool things. Maybe unit and force choice dynamics a bit, but nothing hugely drastic. With the new Nids, it is as if they showed Robin Cruddace some names and pictures, and told him to have fun. They have completely redesigned Tyranids from scratch almost.

Now these things are fine for new players getting started with Tyranids, but for anyone who has been playing them it causes a bit of a mess. Viable options that have been around for the past two codices are now moot. I'm not talking about a unit or two being changed, almost all Tyranid models are going to need to have their arms/weapons changed. That's a lot of work, cutting, breaking and re-fixing. Not to mention the entire play style and tactics are changed. But we are the hive, we will adapt.

Next I want to address the codex hybridization, the loss of uniqueness, the vanilla flavored icing that was put on our codex. When I read this codex it feels more like they combined eldar and daemons together. We have high specialized units, tons of deepstriking options, and no vehicles. We have firedragons, but no transport to keep them safe or get them to the enemy. We have blood letters that can deepstrike in but not assault, and don’t have invuln saves. And then there are the copy paste drop pods, oh but not the one good rule of drop pod assault.

This leads me to what I see as the two greatest failures of the codex. Number one; the drop pod. It’s technically called a Meiotic spore or landing spore or something Tyranid like that. But it really is a vanilla drop pod, and that is what I’m going to call it. If it proves useful enough, I’ll call it a drop spore if I’m feeling nice. What you get is a drop pod that doesn’t have drop pod assault rule, so it has a huge inconsistency of when they will come into the game. Then they made it a Monstrous creature, so it cannot get cover saves. Now I understand this, it makes it more like a vehicle. What I don’t get is how an atmosphere entering, ground impact surviving pod only has toughness of 4, and three wounds. Yep, they are easily instant killed. Oh and they only have a 4+ save. And just to make sure they are vanilla, they can have a storm bolter or a deathwind launcher. Not really but pretty much the equivalent.

The second huge failure of the codex is the new lictor. The fourth edition lictor was good looking in hindsight, just very overpriced. First let me list the prosProsDeploys like Marbo, deepstrike anywhere without scattering.Hit and run,FleetOne additional woundActs like a homing beacon and gives +1 to reserves.

ConsOnly +1 to cover instead of the past +2,Can no longer assault when he enters play.Must field as a single unitOnly gets +1 to reserves, not as versatile as re rolling reserves.The homing beacon and +1 reserve only affect reserves the turn after the lictor comes into play.

Does anyone see the problem yet? The thing that is supposed to help us get reserves in earlier, suffers from its own problem. The earliest its bonuses would help would be turn three. There is no guarantee that the Lictors will come in on turn two. They are just as likely to be the last units to come in from reserves as the first. So the only way I can see them being useful is if I didn't have to keep them in reserves.

Since I’m talking about deepstriking, I’m going to go ahead and mention the Trygon's tunnel. You keep him in reserves, which draw upon all of the above listed problems, and then he has the drop pod minimum scatter rule, to make him more vanilla feeling. He cannot assault the turn he comes in, and he leaves a hole where he entered play. An infantry unit may come out of the hole from reserves on the next turn, but cannot assault that turn either. One, the standard having raveners following him out, which has been the staple of the hole for as far back as I can tell, is not possible, since they are not infantry. Secondly, you have to willingly keep a unit in reserves, without a drop pod or other special rule, just to have them come out of the hole. And if they randomly come in before the trygon, you are out of luck and have to bring them in from your table edge.

Now that deepstriking is out of the way, I’m going to move on to anti-tank. In fourth edition we had three unreliable ways of taking care of a vehicle from ranged. We had a 2D6+3 barrage from spore mines and Biovores. They were decent at taking out light mech, mostly transports. Then we had the venom cannon, which was either strength 8 or 10, and could only glance. It was good for stunning and possible weapon destroyed or immobilization if you were lucky. The last was the focused warp blast. It was a range of 18" and a S10 shot, problem was you had to do a psychic test, then hit with a Bs of 3, then penetrate, and then roll results. Jumping through four hoops to roll a 1 on the results table was horrible.

Now, spore mines are only S4 and can only glance side armor 10. The venom cannons are now set as S9, but are small blasts, and so will scatter off the vehicle 2/3rds of the time. (Average roll of 2D6 - average Bs = 4" which will take the center whole off almost every vehicle). That leaves us with focused blast from a Zoanthrope. It’s still 18" range, still S10, but now its lance and Ap1, and they got Bs improved by one. So they are really the only way to take down a vehicle at range, and almost at all since Monstrous creatures are going to be so rare and expensive, don't count on them making it to close combat.

The problem with this is that they are now squads, so the every focused blast has to be at the same target. So that is only one tank per squad per turn, and that's only if they are in range. So now they are going to become huge priority targets, and they are only T4, and lost protection from Instant death. So any S8+ shot that they fail their save, is going to be removing whole models. With one anti-tank option, this causes a problem with the general idea of redundancy. So now you are taking two squads zoanthropes so you can split fire and hope one survives long enough to pop some vehicles. That takes of two of the three precious elite slots that now almost everything is in. Then there is the idea of getting them close by using drop pods. Well I think you can guess my thoughts on that.

It is worth mentioning we have a S8 ap4 gun, but it too is an elite slot, and its range is only 24". I have yet to test it, but it seems mediocre at best.

My last gripe is they said they are trying to make us a more assault army again, and make us more swarm. Besides zoanthropes and MCs in combat, there are very limited ways to take down mech, so I don’t see how swarm got any more viable. And for being more assault oriented, they failed horribly. Here is how:Many of our standard Assault units like Hormagaunts and carnifexes dropped to Ws3.... why?We have tons of way to enter from reserves, and most of them suck, and all of them don't let us assault.Many units lost fleet, or still don’t have it, and only one unit in the codex now has the 12". So most assault units will be eating rapid fire a lot more now.We still do not have tough units, most things went up in points, and decreased survivability.Lictors and Carnifex are the only two units that can have frag grenades now. For an assault army that needs cover to survive, this is game breaking.

If you have read this far or skipped to the bottom, let me summarize quickly. Every codex in Fifth edition has been slightly more powerful than the prior one. In addition, they had been giving out eternal warrior, invulnerable saves, and frag grenades. Those who play against Tyranids will be happy to know that both of those trends end with this Codex. We have far fewer options, more specialized units and no way to keep them safe or get them closer to the enemy. Monstrous creatures doubled in points, and most of our reserve options sound cool but in practicality are horrible.

All they managed to do was shift target priority around. I see the fifth edition Tyranid codex no more competitive than the fourth edition codex

Saturday, January 9, 2010

This will be my last battle report for the fourth edition tyranid codex. I've held my tongue on anything concerning the new codex, but as soon as I get my hands on a copy I'm letting the opinions fly. But I digress, Back to the battle report, lets make it a good one.

On this occasion I faced against "The Kid". I had not faced against this lad since fourth edition rules, and it seemed he had not played much since then. It was still a fun game, but there were a few fifth edition changes I had to remind him of.

His list (roughly)

HQ??Never saw action so I do not remember to well, but I want to say a Captain with a command squad.

Elite

Techmarine with servo harness and four servitors.

Five man terminator squad- one assault cannon, one flamer, srg with power sword.

Dreadnaught in drop pod, assault cannon, arm with flamer.

Troops

Tactical marines x10 - (? flamer and missle launcher?) powersword

Tactical marines x10 - (flamer and missle launcher ?)powerfist

Scout squad x5 Snipers, one missle launcher.

Scout squad x10 knifes and bolters, one with heavy bolter.

Fast attack

Assault squad x5 - flamer, plasma pistol, powerfist.

We were at 1750, I had picked out my usual units, and added upgrades to my heavy Fexen, and happened to come to 1749.

We rolled for mission, and got three objectives. He placed two, I placed one. He placed one in the middle, I placed one on what was my right, closer to the edge, and he placed the last one middle distance on what was my left. Then we rolled for deployment, and got dawn of war. I had not played Dawn of War in a long time, I started Fifth edition with this codex playing dawn of war, and now I had the chance to finish this codex with dawn of war.

He chose to go first, and set up a Tactical squad on the middle objecive behind a wall. Then he placed his snipers in the building to my left, Shown in the picture. He decided to keep his HQ back, and was finished with initial deployment.

I proceeded to place my hive tyrant behind the tower, and exactly 18" away from the middle tactical squad. I then placed a Genestealer squad to the right in terrain, to hassle what ever he brought on in the next turn. The second genestealer squad I placed south of the far left objective. My plan was to keep them there for the first three turns, then run them up to take the objective. On my subsequent turns I brought my broodlord and retinue up past them and towards the objective (and his hq). The broodlord was intercepted by the assault marines, but handled them with minimal casualties.

On The Kid's first turn he brought most of his stuff on, techmarine and servitors with heavy bolters to my right. His second tactical squad come on behind his first, his second scouts came on behind the sniper scouts, and the Hq unit came on to the far left to protect the objective. He held the assault marines, terminators, and dreadnought in reserve. (I realize now looking back, that drop pod assault should have let him put his dread down first turn instead of second.) After seeing all three of my units had cover, in addition to night fight rules, he simply ran a few units and passed turn.

I then brought the rest of my army onto the board; broodlord to the far left to assault the left objective, devil fex and heavy fex running toward the snipers, Demi-god fex running down the middle in the wake of my Tyrant, elite boom fex supporting the right side, while gaunts and warriors take up cover on the right objective. With broodlord and warriors providing side synapse, my two screaming zoanthropes took up a position each on the flanks. The synapse zoanthrope trailed the Demi-god fex to take up the synapse position when my Tyrant dies.

Anyone who has played me may recognize this as my standard array, equal threat and support for the center and flanks.

I moved/ran my right hand genestealers to the edge of the terrain getting ready to assault the next turn. I moved my tyrant straight towards the tactical squad, since he hadn't moved them I was able to get a turn 1 assault (and why I enjoy Dawn of war). My hive tyrant preformed the best he possibly could. Bio-plasma hit and wounded, and he failed his save, followed by 4 more wounds in normal attacks. He was unable to wound on my toughness, and tried to run, but the tyrant catches them, and lost another marine to No retreat. Placing him in a prime position to stay locked in combat, but with only four marines left, a good chance of killing them on his turn. Pictured at top.

His turn started with dreadnought coming in to the right of my tyrant, and terminators scattering away from my tyrant and in front of my Demi-god Fex. He opened fire on my front genestealers, and I knew the servitor heavy bolters were going to cause me trouble. I had two stealers left by the end of the turn, 11" away from my tyrant and so didn't run. My plan was to ignore the dreadnought for a few turns until my elite boom fex could get to him, nothing really he could hassle. My Tyrant finished off the marines and consolidated towards the second squad.

On my turn I shot the snipers with the devil fex and heavy boom fex. I killed all but the rocket launcher and sergeant, which was fine by that point. I ran and fleeted the right hand genestealers up at the techmarine. The Tyrant and Demi-god Fex got into positions to assault and everything else just moved up towards their goals. The tyrant assaulted the second tactical squad and essentially the same thing as the first squad happened. The Demigod Fex assaulted the terminators, and the Genestealers assaulted the techmarine and servitors. With the terminators, the powersword didnt have the strength to hurt the Fex, then the initiative 2 Fex made all of his attacks back, and managed to kill two powerfist terminators. Of the two remaining only one attack did a wound.

I sacrificed the genestealers in order to kill the techmarine, with a rending hit. Though they then died to the servitors, the mind-lock was in effect for the game and made a good difference. The hidden powerfist managed to hurt my tyrant in the second tactical squad, and was the only model left after No retreat.

Third turn saw assault marines going after my broodlord, the scouts running for their lives, the dreadnought getting assaulted by my Tyrant and loosing weapons. By that point the game was going down hill for him, and he had to leave as it was getting late. The game ended after turn three, with Tyranids on one objective and the two middle ones unclaimed.

In Review, unless the list is heavy mech, The fourth edition codex is still a good book, and I will be sad to see it go. That being said, I am still looking forward to taking care of the tourny/cheese lists with full mech. This game also reminded me that Dawn of War is favored by my playing style when used correctly. With my Tyrant playing extremly well, and my Initiative 2 Fex which is designed to take down terminators killing four of five before the game ended, and only taking one wound, I felt that the list did very well, and I'm glad they got this last Hurrah!